It's a 686
I wanted to thoroughly clean my gun and figured out myself "because I didn't have a manual" how to take out the hammer, trigger, trigger spring etc...

Every single little piece in there I took out, even the firing pin and the little spring in there.

After hours of trying to put it all back to together, I manged it but there was this one spring that I had no idea where it came from.

The spring is shaped different than every other spring in the gun.

There is the spring itself, which is quite small "its like 2 twirls" and it has 2 straight pieces sticking out on 2 opposing sides. 1 is longer than the other.

I think I may know where it goes, but I don't even know the name of the part.

It's the piece that physically touches and turns the cylinder through a slot when you pull the trigger. It has a little knob on it that the spring seems to fit into, but I'm only guessing it goes there.

Is that the right place at least? If it is, I still don't know how to properly put it in but at least I know it goes there.

Btw, when I depress the trigger in my gun now the cylinder doesn't turn.

The coil spring with the 2 arms puts tension on the hand, and can be a little frustrasting if you have never messed with disassembly to that degree. Your best bet is to have a gunsmith reassemble it. Absent that, you may want to search youtube for a video. The easiest thing really is to pull the hammer/hand assembly from another Smith and look at it real close. It will become obvious at that point. I remember doing exactly that many years ago.

It's all part of the learning curve.

__________________
"A Liberal is someone who doesn't care what you do, as long as it's mandatory". - Charles Krauthammer

The coil spring with the 2 arms puts tension on the hand, and can be a little frustrasting if you have never messed with disassembly to that degree. Your best bet is to have a gunsmith reassemble it. Absent that, you may want to search youtube for a video. The easiest thing really is to pull the hammer/hand assembly from another Smith and look at it real close. It will become obvious at that point. I remember doing exactly that many years ago.

It's all part of the learning curve.

I did take it to a smith, in fact I just got back. I have to wait a couple days but in the process he is tuning it up for me too so its all good.

I tried youtube for this and although there are lots of gun videos, there was nothing that I could find to show how to totally disassemble and assemble a smith and wesson revolver, inards and everything.

I wish I had another Smith to use as an instruction manual. Believe me, I would of if I did.

if the spring is loose did you have a pin left over ? real small but I had two 686 apart till the wee hours ...I just did all this ...about 6 times

There were 3 pins that I remember, 2 of them were really small and I knew where they went.

In fact thats another story right there.

The bolt plunger pin... Oh my god that was a NIGHTMARE. I seriously spent like 45 minutes just trying to get the damn bolt in, the pin and that tiny spring were ******* me off.

That little pin went flying so many times, I can't believe I didn't lose it. Once it went half way across the room and I was thinking... thats it, I'll never see that pin again. Then just by luck, I saw it out the corner of my eye.

Big sigh of relief right there.

Then I finally got the bolt in, after practially banging on the darn thing to force it in. I was a bit worried that I may have damaged it but the I didn't, there were no scratches or dents in the steel.

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